A teenager walks through Central Islip, L.I., where four mutilated bodies of young men were found in a public park on April 13, 2017. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Not long ago, President Trump claimed that gangs have "literally taken over towns and cities of the United States." Trump's focus on MS-13 merges two of the administration's key platforms: immigration and policing.

While a moral panic around gangs is not new, the political outcry, led by Trump, has led to calls for stepped up enforcement.

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Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, helped lead that chorus here in New York. Sessions weaves gang fears into Trump's wider anti-immigrant politics by tying "transnational" gangs like MS-13 to immigration policy. Sessions, a man too racist to be a judge in Alabama, visited Long Island after a string of murders, vowing a swift response. The state Senate followed suit by passing a bill that would enhance anti-gang tactics throughout the state.

What nobody seems to understand is that New York City, elbow-deep in its own crackdowns, already enjoys virtually unchecked discretion on enforcement and, crucially, in determining who's in a gang. In fact, what's being championed at the state and national level may not be that different from local policy.

An NYPD "gang entry sheet" obtained through a FOIA request by CUNY Law's Babe Howell revealed disturbingly broad criteria that could land someone on a gang database. The NYPD criteria (scars, tattoos, wearing certain colors, "associating" with alleged gang members or living in designated gang areas) is almost indistinguishable from those the Senate wants to codify into law: "an association in fact of two or more individuals identified by a common name, sign, dress, symbols, tattoos or other mark or markings."

Also, despite anti-Trump rhetoric, the city works hand in glove with ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit, who've provided resources for local gang raids, which mostly target public housing. In 2016, police orchestrated dozens of military-style takedowns, leading to over 1,000 arrests even though we don't have the gang presence of other major urban cities.

NYPD methods are somewhat shrouded in mystery even as police tout their approach as "precision policing." But how do people end up in gang databases? Last year, a California state auditor found the state gang database, CalGang, was so full of errors and unsubstantiated entries (like gang-affiliated toddlers) that it should be overhauled. In Portland, you don't need to be arrested to land on their database. In Chicago, just being seen with a gang member can land you in jail if you're on parole.

Have innocent or minimally-involved individuals been caught in a dragnet? Surveillance through social media is concerning. Some have been monitored since middle school. The low legal bar for alleging gang "conspiracy" produces easy arrests. In a 2014 Harlem raid, local prosecutors indicted 103 people. Last year in the Bronx, feds charged 120. Feds use RICO laws designed to take down the mafia to charge young people, seemingly all of whom are black or Latino.

Lengthy sentences pressure many to take plea deals. Most don't go to trial — which is good for conviction rates but not due process. Facebook pictures, cooperating witnesses and guilt by association, not physical evidence, help convict the few who risk trial.

It's not only possible but probable that we're over-prosecuting under the banner of fighting gangs.

Parents who've met with myself and prisoner rights group IWOC confirm our worst fears. Their sons have been indicted despite no involvement in gang violence, they say. Some have been thrown in federal solitary confinement while awaiting trial or sentencing. One mother whose son was arrested in last year's federally-assisted Eastchester raid lost her public housing of 11 years after the city used permanent exclusion rules to evict her. She and her other school-aged child are now homeless.

The irony is that we've come a long way in acknowledging the follies of the era of mass incarceration - even law enforcement officials have. Raids and RICO prosecutions continue the worst elements of that era.

"Super-predator"-focused politics and media hype were hallmarks of law enforcement's disastrous legacy in communities of color in the 90s. Today, gangs are covered in media accounts on par with terrorists. Tabloids cover gangs and crews, smaller and informal social groupings, as vicious gangsters, helping to convict them in the court of public opinion before they've seen a judge.

This hype makes it difficult to doubt police, seek transparency or to simply see the accused as humans.

Is there violence to be combated? Yes. However, a war on gangs isn't the answer, despite what Sessions and the NYPD say. We should listen to and meaningfully resource street-based violence interrupters who have the unique ability to influence at-risk youth. They have the long term answers to persistent violence.